Crew get ready to try another take during a brief rain scene for "Hap and Leonard" on Friday midday, when traffic was shut down for a few hours to allow for the scene to be shot on Main Street in Cedartown. (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal

‘Hap and Leonard’ production makes it rain in Cedartown

"Hap and Leonard" co-stars James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams drive back to their original spot for a fresh take on a rain scene on Friday afternoon, Nov. 3. (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal)

"Hap and Leonard" co-stars Michael K. Williams and James Purefoy get ready for a fresh take on a rain scene on Main Street in downtown Cedartown. (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal)

Making rain is easy to do for the crew of "Hap and Leonard," so long as they have enough water and some nifty tripods with sprinklers to get the right effect. (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal)

Downtown was blocked off for a few hours on Wednesday, Nov. 1 as crews returned to town to film scenes for the upcoming season of "Hap and Leonard." (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal)

James Purefoy walks away from several takes on a rain scene last Friday, Nov. 3, wiping away the hard work on the set of "Hap and Leonard" in downtown Cedartown. (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal)

Crew get ready to try another take during a brief rain scene for "Hap and Leonard" on Friday midday, when traffic was shut down for a few hours to allow for the scene to be shot on Main Street in Cedartown. (Kevin Myrick/Standard Journal

A good lesson on the technique was on display on Main Street in downtown Cedartown as last week came to a close on Friday as the cast and crew of “Hap and Leonard” shut down Main Street for a few minutes of filming. But the weather wasn’t right for what they needed in the script, so technicians were out ahead of shooting to do the hard work. So how’s it done?

Crews put up tripods fitted with sprinkler heads on top of a tall pole, then fed water lines to a fire hydrant and turned the tap. Three of those in a row were enough for instant rain for the section of street they used, right next door to the Polk County Standard Journal offices.

Co-stars Michael K. Williams and James Purefoy got a little wet from the several takes it took to get the brief scene of them entering a car in the rain just right, but it was only one of several they completed during another three-day shoot in downtown Cedartown.

Following filming on Friday, the cast and crew were out in the county on Johnson Lake Road continuing their work to produce the third season of the show, set to air on Sundance TV sometime in Spring 2018.

Stu Stegall Productions, who is in charge of production efforts in Cedartown, have a permit through Nov. 30 to film the show locally, but its not known if the they’ll be returning for another trip to Polk County just yet.

In the past months, production crews have taken over downtown streets and the parking lot and building of the Cedartown Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia in late September, and again in mid-October.

Cedartown has been cast as the small fictional home to “Hap and Leonard” of Grovetown, Texas during these past months, celebrating the holiday season of 1989.

Williams and Purefoy return in the lead roles, and are joined by other co-stars who have been featured on the series for the past two seasons and some new additions.

The anthology series, based on the celebrated book series of the same name by famed author Joe R. Lansdale follows two lifelong best friends, Hap Collins (James Purefoy “The Following,” “Rome”), an East Texas white boy with a weakness for Southern women, and Leonard Pine (Michael K. Williams “The Night Of,” “The Wire,” 12 Years a Slave), a gay, black Vietnam vet with a hot temper.